Tuesday, March 24, 2009

President Obama Still Can't Close The Sale


President Barack Obama is in desperate need of recapturing the magic, the spark... the 'mojo' that catapulted him to the highest office in the land, if he has any hopes of selling his huge multi-trillion dollar budget to the public. His professorial-style presentation of the issues and facts during his second White House press conference did not help his cause, as he came off repetitive and boring.

Obama is an extremely intelligent and articulate man, who undoubtedly has command of the issues. But just as he demonstrated so many times throughout the 2008 Democratic primaries, this President continues to have a problem closing the sale.

He tried to sell his plan through the yukking-it-up approach on Jay Leno. The take-away from that encounter was the foot-in-mouth Special Olympics gaffe. He also tried the town hall meeting in an attempt to replicate his reach-out to the average Joe-the-Plumber format that was so effective during the campaign. But, his unfortunate comparison of Wall Street bankers to terrorist/suicide bombers with their fingers on the detonators, overshadowed his message.

And... then President Obama's attempt to convey his economic message and finally close the sale on CBS' 60-Minutes was a complete and total set-back for him, as his inappropriate laughter while discussing such a serious subject was a complete turn off to millions of Americans. He is being excoriated in bloggersville because of that behavior in that interview.

How badly he needed to connect to voters during the press conference held in the East Room of the White House. Right now, he is losing steam and momentum each day he fails to make his point on why he needs all of this money in his budget, where the regular folks can understand and 'get it'. Time will tell if he has what it takes. But time may not be his friend!

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